Gmat rc 117Passages 一、gmat new 63Passages
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- Passage 112 (12/17)
Passage 111 (11/17)Modern manufacturers, who need reliable sources of materials and technologically advanced components to operate profitably, face an increasingly difficult choice between owning the producers of these items (a practice known as backward integration (backward integration: 后向合并)) and buying from independent producers. Manufacturers who integrate may reap short-term rewards, but they often restrict their future capacity for (capacity for: ...的能力) innovative product development. Backward integration removes the need for some purchasing and marketing functions, centralizes overhead, and permits manufacturers to eliminate duplicated efforts in research and development. Where components are commodities (ferrous metals or petroleum, for example), backward integration almost certainly boosts profits. Nevertheless, because product innovation means adopting the most technologically advanced and cost-effective ways of making components, backward integration may entail a serious risk for a technologically active company—for example, a producer of sophisticated consumer electronics. A company that decides to make rather than buy important parts can lock itself into an outdated technology. Independent suppliers may be unwilling to share innovations with assemblers with whom they are competing. Moreover, when an assembler sets out to master the technology of producing advanced components, the resulting demands on its resources may compromise its ability to assemble these components successfully into end products. Long-term contracts with suppliers can achieve many of the same cost benefits as backward integration without compromising a company’s ability to innovate. However, moving away from backward integration is not a complete solution either. Developing innovative technologies requires independent suppliers of components to invest huge sums in research and development. The resulting low profit margins on the sale of components threaten the long-term financial stability of these firms. Because the ability of end-product assemblers to respond to market opportunities depends heavily on suppliers of components, assemblers are often forced to integrate by purchasing the suppliers of components just to keep their suppliers in business. 257. According to the passage, all of the following are benefits associated with backward integration EXCEPT: (A) improvement in the management of overhead expenses (B) enhancement of profit margins on sales of components (C) simplification of purchasing and marketing operations (D) reliability of a source of necessary components（B） (E) elimination of unnecessary research efforts 258. According to passage, when an assembler buys a firm that makes some important component of the end product that the assembler produces, independent suppliers of the same component may (A) withhold technological innovations from the assembler (B) experience improved profit margins on sales of their products (C) lower their prices to protect themselves from competition (D) suffer financial difficulties and go out of business（A） (E) stop developing new versions of the component 259. Which of the following best describes the way the last paragraph functions in the context of the passage? (A) The last in a series of arguments supporting the central argument of the passage is presented. (B) A viewpoint is presented which qualifies one presented earlier in the passage. (C) Evidence is presented in support of the argument developed in the preceding paragraph. (D) Questions arising from the earlier discussion are identified as points of departure for further study of the topic.（B） (E) A specific example is presented to illustrate the main elements of argument presented in the earlier paragraphs. 260. According to the passage, which of the following relationships between profits and investments in research and development holds true for producers of technologically advanced components? (A) Modest investments are required and the profit margins on component sales are low. (B) Modest investments are required but the profit margins on component sales are quite high. (C) Despite the huge investments that are required, the profit margins on components sales are high. (D) Because huge investments are required, the profit margins on component sales are low.（D） (E) Long-term contractual relationships with purchasers of components ensure a high ratio of profits to investment costs. Passage 112 (12/17)Homeostasis, an animal’s maintenance of certain internal variables within an acceptable range, particularly in extreme physical environments, has long interested biologists. The desert rat and the camel in the most water-deprived environments, and marine vertebrates in an all-water environment, encounter the same regulatory problem: maintaining adequate internal fluid balance. For desert rats and camels, the problem is conservation of water in an environment where standing water is nonexistent, temperature is high, and humidity is low. Despite these handicaps, desert rats are able to maintain the osmotic pressure of their blood, as well as their total body-water content, at approximately the same levels as other rats. One countermeasure is behavioral: these rats stay in burrows during the hot part of the day, thus avoiding loss of fluid through panting or sweating, which are regulatory mechanisms for maintaining internal body temperature by evaporative cooling (evaporative cooling: 蒸发冷却). Also, desert rats’ kidneys can excrete a urine having twice as high a salt content as sea water. Camels, on the other hand, rely more on simple endurance. They cannot store water, and their reliance on an entirely unexceptional kidney results in a rate of water loss through renal function significantly higher than that of desert rats. As a result, camels must tolerate losses in body water of up to thirty percent of their body weight. Nevertheless, camels do rely on a special mechanism to keep water loss within a tolerable range: by seating and panting only when their body temperature exceeds that which would kill a human, they conserve internal water. Marine vertebrates experience difficulty with their water balance because though there is no shortage of seawater to drink, they must drink a lot of it to maintain their internal fluid balance. But the excess salts from the seawater must be discharged somehow, and the kidneys of most marine vertebrates are unable to excrete a urine in which the salts are more concentrated than in seawater. Most of these animals have special salt-secreting organs outside the kidney that enable them to eliminate excess salt. 261. Which of the following most accurately states the purpose of the passage? (A) To compare two different approaches to the study of homeostasis (B) To summarize the findings of several studies regarding organisms’ maintenance of internal variables in extreme environments (C) To argue for a particular hypothesis regarding various organisms’ conservation of water in desert environments (D) To cite examples of how homeostasis is achieved by various organisms（D） (E) To defend a new theory regarding the maintenance of adequate fluid balance 262. According to the passage, the camel maintains internal fluid balance in which of the following ways? I. By behavioral avoidance of exposure to conditions that lead to fluid loss II. By an ability to tolerate high body temperatures III. By reliance on stored internal fluid supplies (A) I only (B) II only (C) I and II only (D) II and III only（B） (E) I, II, and III 263. It can be inferred from the passage that some mechanisms that regulate internal body temperature, like sweating and panting, can lead to which of the following? (A) A rise in the external body temperature (B) A drop in the body’s internal fluid level (C) A decrease in the osmotic pressure of the blood (D) A decrease in the amount of renal water loss（B） (E) A decrease in the urine’s salt content 264. It can be inferred from the passage that the author characterizes the camel’s kidney as “entirely unexceptional” (line 24) primarily to emphasize that it (A) functions much as the kidney of a rat functions (B) does not aid the camel in coping with the exceptional water loss resulting from the extreme conditions of its environment (C) does not enable the camel to excrete as much salt as do the kidneys of marine vertebrates (D) is similar in structure to the kidneys of most mammals living in water-deprived environments（B） (E) requires the help of other organs in eliminating excess salt
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